Bar splice for woven-wire fabrics



March 8,1932.V f H, L, ESTMAN 1,849,035

y Fi 11111111111 s1 Patented Mar. 8, 1932 UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICEHAROLD L. EASTMAN, OF HARTFORD, CONNECTICUT, ASSIGNOR TO HARTFORD-EMPIRECOMPANY, OF HARTFORD, CONNECTICUT, A CORPORATION OF DELAWARE BAR SPLICEFOR WOVEN-WIRE FABRICS Application filed February 7,` 1931. Serial No.514,101;

This invention relates to sectional wovenwire fabrics and its object isto provide'a novel and effective means for connecting the panels. orsections of conveyor belts formed of sections composed of interwovenhelical wires of right-hand twist alternating with sections composed ofinterwoven helical wires of left-hand twist.

My invention is designed as an improvement in the type of connectionshown in the U. S. Patent 1,675,276 issued to Karl E. Peiler, June 26,1928 (Reissue Patent 17,774, reissued August 19, 1930). Among theobjects of my invention is to improve the belt fabric by eliminating therelatively large spaces which occur between the wires of adjacentsections at the point of connection, and thus make a belt which will beadapted to support articles at the point of connection equally as wellas upon the belt sections proper, while maintaining all of theadvantages which are obtained by the use of the structure disclosed inthe Peiler patent.1y

Other objectsv of my invention will be apparent from the followingspecification and from the accompanying drawings, in which:

Figure 1 is a plan view of a connecting member constructed in accordancewith my invention showing portions of adjacent woven wire sections whichare connected thereby; and

Fig. 2 is a transverse sectional view taken on the line 2-2 of Fig. 1.

Conveyor belts of the character above referred to are now in general usein commercial glass-annealing leers, for example, those of the typeshown in the patent to Mulholland 1,560,481, granted November l3, 1925.It is desirable in many, if not all,types of Vglass-annealing leers,that the glass articles be placed quite close to, but slightly spacedfrom, each other on the belt. Furthermore, in the case where relativelysmall articles are being annealed, for example, prescription bottleshaving uneven contours in horizontal section, and especially thosehaving small bottoms, it is essential that a belt be employed having allportions of such character that the smallest ware to be annealed may beplaced thereon without danger of toppling and there- .der of the belt.With my present invent-ion, however, the belt has substantially the sameware-supporting characteristics of surface at the joint as throughoutthe remainder thereof, with the result that any articles which may beplaced upon the belt surface intermediate the joints may also beplaced-at 0r over the joints without danger of toppling. This results inpermitting the use of a relatively larger gage wire or winding,` of thebelt with resultant greater mechanical strength and longer life for theannealing of ware of a given size, or conversely with a given belt, itpermits the annealing of smaller or less stable glass articles.

In the drawings, a section of woven-wire fabric composed of wires havingright-hand twists is indicated by the numeral 3 and a section composedof wires having a left-hand twist is indicated by the numeral 4. The

wires may be true helixesor may be somewhat flattened, and wherever Irefer to helical wires such a construction is to be understood. Aconnecting bar 5 contains two series of perforations 6 and 7, the seriesbeing spaced transversely of the bar 5 and each perforation of theseries being spaced longitudinally ofthe bar and hence transversely ofthe belt.` The perforations are so located that a single line will betangential to all. The perforations, as indicated, are spaced accordingto the pitch of the helixes and optionally may be oval in form insteadof circular, as shown, with their greater axes extending longitudinallyof the bar in the manner disclosed in the Peiler patent.

Connecting the section 3 to the bar 5, a helical wire 8, of similartwist and pitch to that composing the section 3, is interwoven betweenthe fabric and perforations 6 in the bar most distant from the fabricthrough which the strand is woven, and similarly in connecting thesection 4 to the bar a strand 9, of twist and pitch similar to that ofthe strands composing the fabric 4, is interwoven between that fabricand the perforations 7 of the bar most distant from the section 4.

By so weaving the strands 8 and 9 through the bar, it will be obviousthat the ware-bearing surface of the fabric offers no less supportingsurface at the point of connection than at any portion of the fabric,thus the joint of the belt may be said to have the same effectiveware-bearing surface as the remain'- der of the belt. The conveyor thusformed also retains the desirable features of that of the aforesaidPeiler patent.

Various modiiications may be made from the above-described embodiment ofmy invention without departing from the spirit and scope thereof as setforth in the following claims.

I claim 1. A woven wire fabric comprising adjacent sections composed ofintermeshing helical wires of opposite twist, and means for connectingsaid sections including a perforated bar, connecting helical wires oftwist similar to that of the respective sections woven throughperforations in said bar, there being two series of perforations in thebar, and each of said connecting wires beingr woven through the seriesmore distant from its respective belt section, whereby the convolutionsof said connecting wires overlap.

2. A conveyor belt of woven-wire fabric, comprising alternate sectionsof interwoven helical wires extending transversely of the belt, and atransversely arranged connector between said sections, said connectorincluding a fiat bar provided with two series of .openings spacedlongitudinally thereofl and each series tangent to the median line ofthe bar, the end Wire of each of the adjacent belt sections beinginterwoven through the series of openings in the bar distant from itsrespective section, whereby the ware-bearing surface of the belt acrossthe connection so formed has substantially the same ware-supportingcharacteristics as the remainder of the belt.

3. A woven-wire fabric comprising alternate sections of interwovenhel-ical wires having right and left-hand wound twists respectively, andmeans for connecting two adjacent sections including a fiat integral barpierced with a plurality of rows of openings spaced longitudinally ofsaid bar, each opening being tangent to the median line of said bar, ahelical wire having con volutions passing through the turns ofthe endmember of one of said sections and the row of openings distant from saidsection, and a second helical wire having convolutions passing throughthe turns of the end member of the other of said sections and the otherrow of openings in said bar, the second hel-ical wire having itsconvolutions arranged between the convolutions of said firstnamedhelical wire.

Signed at'Hartford, Connecticut, this 5th day of February, 1931.

HAROLD L. EASTMAN.

